The Ministry of Defence has rejected the telecom commission’s request to surrender 20 MHz of frequency airwaves in the 1880-1900 MHz band, which were planned to be used for indoor cordless communication. The ministry has asserted that the airwaves are critical to the defence operational applications and thus, transfer of these airwaves cannot be negotiated. Further, the defence ministry added that the armed forces are finding it difficult to accommodate the existing strategic communication systems in the allocated 150 MHz of spectrum in the 1880-1900 MHz band.  

In this regard, the telecom commission is now planning to seek the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) recommendations for alternate spectrum bands for indoor cordless communication. TRAI will need to explore other bands where device ecosystems for cordless telecom services are available. At present, the 300 MHz of frequency airwaves between 1700 MHz and 2000 MHz are equally shared between the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the armed forces. Further, the airwaves in the 1880-1900 MHz sub-band lie within the 150 MHz of spectrum allocated to the defence ministry.

Consequently, a DoT panel which examines TRAI’s proposals has asked the telecom commission to look into the matter.